Al Franken dropped by KFGO the other day and, to paraphrase a line from “Finding Nemo,” for a Saturday Night Live alum, he’s really not that funny. Not that he was trying to be, which is the entire point.
The U.S. Senator from Minnesota was in Moorhead to meet with Mayor Del Rae Williams, scope out the potential 20th/21st Street underpass project and talk about rail safety in the unending wake of the Casselton, N.D., oil train derailment and explosion.
Franken made a side trip to KFGO to record an interview with me. He also spent a few minutes chatting with news director Paul Jurgens and midday talk host Sandy Buttweiler. Franken was serious, professional and respectful. When asked off-air by Jurgy if he liked being a U.S. Senator, Franken said: “Yes, I do. The neatest thing is getting a chance to help people. They’ll come to you with something they need help with, and helping them solve that problem is very rewarding.”
Yaaaaaaawn.
Pretty boring, huh? No Stuart Smalley. No one-liners about Rush Limbaugh. No tin-foil satellite dishes on his head. No name-dropping of Hollywood celebrities. No ribald stories of the good old days. No jokes unsuitable for a PG-13 audience. No jokes at all, actually. And, thankfully, no “I’m good enough. I’m smart enough. And doggone it, people like me.”
Al Franken is a serious U.S. Senator.
This is a good thing, and something that has Republicans both baffled and, seemingly, angry. They were sure the unapologetic Democrat Franken was going to be a wild-eyed liberal clown, a joke of a politician who would spend more time doing late-night TV talk shows and removing his foot from his mouth than spending time on policy topics like biofuels and campaign-finance laws.
Republicans campaigned in 2008 against Franken by using his comedy background and, despite the fact it didn’t work, have kept pounding away. Polls show it is still not working. A February poll by the Star Tribune newspaper of Minneapolis had Franken with a 55 percent job-approval rating.
It’s an odd thing. Franken has stayed true to his progressive roots while being incredibly pragmatic and remarkably low-key in the Senate — much like Minnesota’s senior U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar. Yet Republicans have rarely, if ever, attacked Klobuchar and seem resigned to the idea she’ll be a senator as long as she wants to be a senator.
With Franken, though, there is a visceral reaction whenever his name is mentioned. When I posted a photo of myself and the senator on Facebook, one of the first comments posted was: “Yuck. I sure hope Minnesota wises up and gets rid of that joker.” Franken remains a polarizing figure even as he nears the end of his inaugural six-year term.
A joker? He’s done nothing to deserve such scorn. Franken’s pet projects have included net neutrality, education, campaign finance and Internet privacy.
There is nothing controversial there.
Some liberals, in fact, wish Franken would be more outspoken. So would all Republicans, no doubt. But it’s clear the former comedian went to Washington, D.C., to work. He’s avoided offending, either with jokes or bomb-throwing appearances on talk shows.
Let’s ask this question: Who is the bigger joke and embarrassment to this state, Franken or Ted Cruz? All but the most hyperpartisan right-wingers would answer Cruz.
Franken came to Moorhead to talk about an underpass and rail safety, for goodness sake. Could it get more uncontroversial? There might be a joke in there somewhere, but if there is Franken isn’t telling it.
(Mike McFeely is a talk-show host on 790 KFGO-AM. His show airs 2-5 p.m. Monday-Friday.)